I am the person who produced this show. I was interviewed about this for an article in Las Vegas Weekly

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/content/fileadmin/oldsite/2007/04/26/hadtobe.html

I was working for a Las Vegas company (EG&G) at the time but was on loan to Lawrence Livermore Laboratory and lived in Berkeley, CA. I had attened dozens of concerts at the Fillmore Auditorium and wanted to bring some of that to Las Vegas.

One more detail: this recording was done by Owsley on reel-to-reel. He did the sound for the show.

The group which opened was Free Circus.

-- Dick Lepre
e-mail dick@lepre.com

I attended the concert; I was an early Dead fan. A local band opened. In retrospect, I'd like to know who it was, but we found it boring at the time. Then a band came on we'd never heard of, Santana, which had not even released its first album. Blew us away. My friend, a guitarist, kept asking who was playing that beautiful guitar? We were hearing an amazing guitarist, but couldn't see a guitarist on stage. Finally my friend yelled, "There he is! Back behind the amps! With his back to the audience!" And there he was. Carlos was very shy at the beginning. But the band was killing, lifting us off our feet. Just amazing. After Santana ended, the Dead, whom we had come to hear, came on, and "Morning Dew" quickly turned into one of their famous three-guitar jams. The four of us looked at each other and quickly decided to leave, rather than be brought down from our amazing high. We split. Good decision. That was the only time I saw the Dead live.

Any show with the Holy Trinity (DS.>St. Stephen->The Eleven) is worth a listen, and that includes this one. Sound quality is fine, though the splices are unfortunate. Phil sounds great! Thank goodness they kept TC low in the mix. Hard to imagine what seeing the Dead in Vegas was like back then when The Mob still ran the town.

Good sounding show, wish there were a better sourced copy than "liberated bootleg".

http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/news/archive/2007/apr/26/you-had-to-be-there/

Good article describing the 25 most legendary concerts in the history of Las Vegas.

Here is what it says about the Dead:

5. Grateful Dead (with Santana), Las Vegas Ice Palace, March 29, 1969

At the height of their psychedelic prowess, the Dead rolled into town for their first Vegas visit (and last until 1981), playing a show that has long circulated in recorded form among the band's horde of tape-trading followers. "The playing is at its most exploratory and concentrated form, treading the familiar ground of these tunes with increasing assurance and darting off for angular, propulsive jamming," wrote fan Fred Heutte in 1997's DeadBase X: The Complete Guide to Grateful Dead Song Lists. But don't take his word for it, or ours—stream it for yourself, free, at archive.org/details/gd69-03-29.sbd.vinson.1764.sbeok.shnf. It's hissy and missing a few bits and pieces, but there are more than enough trippy Jerry Garcia solos, booming Phil Lesh bass bombs and bluesy Pigpen attitude to guarantee lovers of the early Dead's cosmic sound will bookmark and revisit the Ice Palace again and again.

19. Grateful Dead, Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, April 27, 1991

We didn't intend to tie up two of our 25 precious slots with one band, but, as former Sam Boyd facilities director Pat Christenson explains, the Dead's first Vegas stadium concert forever changed Southern Nevada's concert fortunes. "When we did the first Dead show, there really wasn't a philosophy of touring shows being able to bring tourists to town, but we sold out 32,000 a show for two nights," he says. "And after we did that first show we had a picture of a sold-out stadium, which we showed to Paul McCartney's people, and from there all the stadium shows started coming through Vegas: McCartney, U2, The Eagles, Metallica, Lollapalooza, George Strait ... The Dead opened everyone's eyes to Vegas' ability to do the biggest touring shows, which later moved over to the MGM, Mandalay Bay, the Joint [at the Hard Rock Hotel] and the other casino properties."

And, yes kids, there's a phish mention too, plus this tidbit from the lowlights section:

2.
Frank Zappa , Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts, September 10, 1977 Zappa’s road manager is found dead in his Aladdin hotel room the morning after the show, of apparent self-inflicted razor-blade wounds.

Article also has show posters.

Peace,

Bob

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Headlining at the ICE PALACE in Las Vegas, Nevada the GRATEFUL DEAD were giving Elvis and Sinatra some competition......

Users of Windows XP should be viewing this web-page with RealPlayer. While you are streaming or downloading you can use its 3 band EQ to improve the sound.

Once you've downloaded the songs, I recommend using Windows Media Player's 10 band EQ to improve the playback sound.

Classic 1969 sound.

I remember 1969.

Eat Drink, Be Merry and Listen to the GRATEUL DEAD.

Thanks for the Love.

Very strong Eleven and a beautiful Doin That Rag.

I was only three when my parents took me to this show, but I do have a faint memory of having lots of fun while enjoying the music and dancing. It all started here for me.....And 221 shows later....

The second half of "Dark Star," after the vocal, is pretty damned good and unfolds nicely. Less meandering and more communication. Unfortunately there's a splice when it starts to get really interesting, about the 13:30 mark, and a chunk of the song got lopped out.

Sound is very muddy, like an old ampex 60 tape (remember the green tapes?) I suggest the night before in Modesto. Thanks to the Archive for their OUTSTANDING work, what music would we have if it weren't for yous guys? Sure, GDLive and all the rest, and bless them too, But this site is the best for many reasons. 1. Very detailed show info. 2. Quality of shows is generally 3stars and up, 3. I've never been deneid access for any tech. reasons, 4. Ya rock. 'nuff said. THANKS A MILLION ARCHIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!